Vita ex Machina
by Secret-H
Summary: Snap shots of the AU in 'Deus ex Machina'. Because I'm lazy okay. Maybe, later, we'll get some plot going, but until then, consider it world building. Also, theses are drabbles in the traditional sense of the word, don't expect too much.
1. Just for the record

**If your wondering why I'm doing this instead the Hetalia or Megas stuff, I am actually a bit remorseful. However, I lost the notebook that I was working on for like a month in Jamaica, and you don't just recover from shit like that. It's going to take me a while to recover enough enthusiasm to rewrite so much work. It get's me depressed just thinking about it. Also I have college stuff. *shifty eyes* but that's not important. **

_**Disclaimed**__**: DO. NOT. WA... OWN.**_

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><p>Xana was what should have been a simple A.I Not that there's anything simple about artificial intelligence, but the point is that anyone now could tell you that, either way, A.I. is a crap shot. Unfortunately, The Matrix had not come out until 1999, and by then we, as a human race, were more or less screwed. Surprisingly enough, however, it wasn't America's fault.<p>

France.


	2. We came together, but more like a puzzle

**MMMOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo! And what's more...**

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><p><strong>... than glue<strong>

Jeremy, Aelita, Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich were friends, and most people couldn't get it. Some even resented it. Aelita, they could almost understand; Jeremy had discovered her programming, saved her from Xana, and got her her own body. But Jeremy had known Odd and the rest from before all of this mess going on in the world had even come out in the open. There was also the fact that a lot of the newer members of Lyoko probably would not recognize Jeremy for who he was if they saw him. He was just the nerdy kid who never went out to fight Xana's monsters and, recently android/cyborgs.

Of course, those who did know Jeremy before everything hit the fan were the ones who were resentful. Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi, along with William, were their best fighters. Aelita was metaphorically, and literally, their anti-Xana; their techno-genderbender-Jesus. There was no reason why they should grace that loser with their presence and ignore the more important people, (like Sissy).

But, even so, the group remained a group, though the dynamic had shifted.

Or would it be until the dynamic shifted, because they didn't really hang out as much as they used to. It wasn't the normal drifting that came with life, but a series of abrupt catalysts that happened one after another. And really, when one got right down to it, their entire friendship was never something that would have happened naturally.


	3. The sum of a genius doesn't always add

**MOOOOOoooooooooooooo! I suppose I didn't mention that there is no order to these. Well...there is no order to these.**

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><p><strong>...up<strong>

Because in the beginning there was only Jeremy, it never occurred to him that he needed friends. Even as a child he had always been on his own. His parents were rich, near wealthy; the large corporate type that worked at all hours to the point that one had to wonder where they had the time to go about making a child. At least Jeremy had, although not with bitterness. He didn't miss people that he never knew.

Up until he was five he was under the impression that his Nourrice was his mother, and his parents had not seen fit to disabuse him of that notion. Apparently, it was good for his emotional development to at least have a stand-in. Jeremy hadn't minded. Nourrice had a son that she brought with her as a playmate for her charge. She had felt bad for him and thought it best that he had some kind of interaction with a child near his age. Jeremy hadn't minded. In fact, he rather enjoyed the arrangement.

Of course, all good things come to an end, and so Jeremy found himself shunted off to boarding school, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Jeremy most definitely had minded that, but he went along with. There were, of course, the occasional cards exchanged between Jeremy and his pseudo-family, but it wasn't the same.

Jeremy had his own room, as requested by his parents, as to allow him his work and study without distraction. There was little interaction between him and the outside world. At first, he turned towards computers, (up until then a casual interest of his,) to take his mind off of the isolation from his peers. Yet, eventually, the technology became a pursuit of its very own, something he could lose hours in and still come back for more.

And then Jeremy met Aelita, though technically her program designate was Maya and Maya was not an actually person. She was an A.I. But she was the first friend Jeremy had made since his parents had shipped him off, and artificial intelligence was still intelligence.

A catalyst, a change, and things would never be the same. For better or worse.


	4. Stronger than he looks, he supports us

**MOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!**

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><p><strong>...afterall<strong>

Despite what other people thought, Jeremy actually had quite a bit of muscle. This didn't come going out to battle like all the other late teenaged warriors of _'La Résistance'_, as he almost never left the factory. No, this strength came from almost single handedly, (with the occasional help from Aelita, Odd, and Jim,) keeping the factory that was their home and headquarters running.

This was no easy task, usually involving a surprising amount of physical labor, and a really big wrench. Jeremy did it, however, because no one else really knew how. Which brought him to the problem at hand.

Something bad was going to happen. Or more specifically, something bad was going to happen to him. He was not exactly sure what was coming, but he did know that he wasn't going to be here in the next three months. This was worrying in and of itself, but Jeremy, being the pragmatic person he was, focused on the second on the list of unfortunate situations: _No one else really knew how to maintain the factory._

And the factory needed constant maintenance. It was rather old, hence the muscles and wrench, and Jeremy was at a loss as to how any one of them could forget that.


	5. Evolution, revolution, other words that

**MOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo! - What does this even mean?**

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><p>It was just that things kept escalating. No matter how many times they had beaten Xana down, it had come back smarter and stronger than ever. All of the upgrades, renovation and innovation seemed for not, because whether Jeremy created the smallest program or made an amazing breakthrough, Xana was there to make it even greater, if terrible.<p>

And then there were the new factories scattered throughout the world, and Jeremy could not even begin to describe his euphoria when he was able to translate digitalization into reality, if only for a little while. It was a step forward in getting Aelita a real body of her own, though he was at a lost as to how to make it permanent if not human like.

It would be even harder to even comprehend his horror when Xana introduced the Replicators. They had come in machine or organic based forms, and while Jeremy could not say that it was his fault exactly, he could more or less mark that as the point where human kind began losing this unofficial war against an enemy of its own creation. Actually, it was a little after that they realized that a war was going on. Quite a bit too late.


	6. The more things change, the more it

**MOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo! Last piece for now?**

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><p><strong>...surprises you when they still blow up in your face.<strong>

For some reason that escapes him, Jeremy did not digitalize over well. Maybe it was just a glitch from the first time he met Aelita in the Lyoko-limbo, but the second time he tried, his information some how crossed over Odd's and he ended up with the premonition ability that had been written over when he gave them their upgrades way in the beginning. Jeremy hadn't even known that program still existed, and yet somehow he now got generally useless insights to the future. Needless to say, that was the last time he ever attempted it.

It wasn't like he was missing much anyway. He was simply too busy: creating avatars for new initiates, finding new ways to fight Xana, finding new ways to discern Replicators, hacking Xana's system without it finding out, finding the time to talk to his friends, teaching Aelita some of the more convoluted systems of the super computer, keeping the factory from falling apart, instructing Odd and Jim on how to keep the factory from falling apart, making sure there was food, plumbing, or even running water.

It was amazing how much the world and the lives that inhabited it could change in five years. Even more amazing how people could stay the same.


	7. Unprecedented violence

**MOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo! A bit longer than the other ones, and more related to the other one shot than any so far. I thought I was on the way to plot, but it died. At least I have dialogue? Last bit for a while probably. **

**I want me some slash, not that I can write it, but if I can skip around the place for random facts I should at least do some future Xana/Jeremy. I've done too much backreading not to deserve it.**

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><p>"<em>Hurry, Jeremy!<em>" Yuki's yell was only just recognizable over the orchestra of sound overwhelming the ear piece.

"That would be a little easier if I had some quiet." Jeremy snapped back, struggling to concentrate. Why did nothing ever work out the way it was supposed too?

Someone once said that "a battle plan will never survive the first contact with the enemy." Jeremy could understand and even get behind that, but nothing in that phrase could possible understate more the massive clusterfuck that was taking place.

It was merely supposed to be a tutorial. There were so many test to do, making sure digitalization went through, and then conversion into the real world. Everyone's abilities had to fit their personalities and skill set potentials, glitches had to be ironed out, and at this point the super computer had to be defragged every time a new avatar was created. Training was being more and more rushed, but the tutorial was last to make sure the n00bs didn't get themselves or anyone else "killed", or so much worse, captured, because they were too busy sucking.

Case in point, a simple hit and run turns into an war-scale battle because some idiot still can't tell the difference between a replicator and an actual human, still feels needs to show off, and alerts every god damn creature in a three mile radius to their presence. Now some useless, low priority factory was the ground for worthless melee, causing Jeremy countless amount of data. Devirtualization was not even an option anymore; people were coming in so fast, he was spending half of his brain worrying about the scanners overheating, or losing someone in the rush.

"Dammit! Dammit!" Unfortunately, the factory, while not in a heavily populated area, was close enough to civilian area, that the government might take action. Damage needed to be minimalized, another thing n00bs most definitely had no experience in. At this point, it was just a matter of making sure that they, were the last ones standing. "How are we doing, William?"

"_Honestly? When we get back, we are really going to need to work on aim. All of the squad leaders are taking care of the hornets and roller ball things-_"

"Megatanks."

"_Whatever. All I'm saying is that we are wasting way too much time because the newbies are apparently only good for cleaving things shorter than them. _"

"What about the- ?"

"_Replicators? That's the other half of the problem._"

"_No one but us is able to take them on, but, as you heard, we're kinda busy._" Ulrich cut in.

"_I was getting to- shit!_"

"The Replicators are maximum priority, and one of them is heading towards the factory for some reason. Kill it."

"_What about the- ?_" Yumi

"For et about everything else! The hornets can be handled later, the megatanks are stuck in the immediate area, and the n00bs can die. It'll be a learning experience."

"Cold, dude." Jeremy ignored Odd's comment, who was hovering behind him, and had been since he learned about the mission fail/ battle in progress.

"William: head to the factory. Ulrich: go after the other Replicators. Yumi, destroy everything else."

"_Got it._"

"_Oh, man._"

"_Sure thing._"

Of course it was never that easy.

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><p>"<em>Argh!<em>" A scream came from over the com.

"What? What's happening?" God, it was so hard to get satellite feed in the Ukraine.

"_Jeremy, I need a new fan._"

"_I could do with a new sword, man._"

"Shut up! William isn't answering!"

"_What's wrong?_" Yumi, asked.

"_I'm sure he's fine, Yumi._" Ulrich tried to reassure her.

"No, his life just took a massive drop." Jeremy's fingers flew across the keys., and a second sword materialized in Ulrich's grip. "Something's wrong, but…hmm. No, we need to finish the monsters."

"_Come on Jeremy, there aren't even that many left._" Yumi coaxed

"I- " He stopped. The factory had activated, but there was no outside reaction. And then Williams signal disappeared. "Wait, go. Something happened to William."

"What?"

"I don't know okay, just…" Jeremy turned to the side. "Odd, go get Aelita."

"On it, Jer." Odd said, was already halfway to the door.

But he wouldn't get back in time.

"We're in the factory, but I don't see anybody."

"_Oh god, there's no one here_." There were only quiet sobs on the line now, and Jeremy watched with a rising despair as the factory deactivated on it's own.

"What's wrong? What happened, Yumi?" There was silence that lasted too long.

"_Jeremy…_" Ulrich answered instead, and god , an icy formed at the pit of his stomach. He closes his eyes to the inevitable bad news. "_I think they have William."_

_Shit._


End file.
